Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-04-11
The House Beautiful.

There has been 50 much written ard
said since our Centennial on The
house beautiful" that il would seem
the lessons taught and the ideas adj
vanced here come within reach of every
reading person, Yet an every day ex-
perience eonyinces me that these ideas
have only fallen here and there into
good soil and that there are many
strong places yet to be cultivated
The question is, can people ever learn
tests unless it is born in them? Is it a
thing that can be taught, or is it only
a natural gift? If those who do not
possess it, ever acquire degree of it
through observation or contact, be sure
they hold to their meager requirements
with more tenaeity than the people
who inherit it, just as convert to a
new creed is more Jealous usually than
the man who has always subscribed to
1t. These converts in good taste will
advance its theories with as much inn
punity as the plagiarist exhibits the
thoughts of others as his own. l was
greatly diverted the other day by the
remarks of proud, ambitious woman
who has attained to some degree of
culture in her home through observa-
ton and contact with people of good
taste, but who naturally loved show,
preferred gaudy colors to subdued
ones, vulgar forms to plain, modest
designs, etc, show to comfort, etc.
Said she, looking at Il lounge in the
room of friend, lounge, generous,
and comfortable in proportions, covered
with pretty pattern of chintZ, ''How
l do like that lounge of yours, it looks
so comfortable, and yet you tell me it
was so inexpensive; | can scarcely be-
lieve it. Five dollars, did you say, for
the entire woodwork and mattrass and
two dollars for the cover? Dear me,
how wish | had just such lounges in
our bedrooms instead of those stiff, UNI
comfortable things which cost me fifty
dollars apiece. How little one does
know when one first goes to house-keep-
ing" As her friend to whom she adj
dressed these remarks had just gone
to housekeeping, and the chintz
lounges of her bedrooms were among
the first articles purchased, the inward
struggle was great to suppress laugh.
relate this story because paragraph
on Fifty dollar lounges" is worth our
consideration. If there is any one
article of furniture in the market which
imposes upon the uninitiated. let us un-
hesitatingly call it lounge! They
are, as we know, of two patterns, the
narrow, hard, rounded thing with a
support on one side, or the extension
lounge fearfully and wonderfully
made, out of joint generally, difficult
to manage, easy to wear out, and yet
these are the designs for which nine
tenths of our people lay down fifty
dollars. If the mattrass is too hard to
please your lame back, then make soft
comfort to lay on the top, and then
buy your chintz or your denning cloth,
cut your pattern to cover the top of the
lounge, then strip, say six or eight
inches wide, to go around this, holding
the corners tight, and again wide
piece which will reach to the floor.
Either gather this second piece on. to
the band or on the first strip, or sew il
on plain, according to the pattern of
your chintz. Some goods look rich
enough without fullness, others require
it. The pillows can be two or three in
number and large enough to place
against the wall as a support, if one
wishes to be seated on this lounge
instead of reclining on it. Cover the
pillows with the same material as you
use for the lounge-MrS. N. Tattle. in
Good Housekeeping.